M.T.A. chairman Joe Lhota has traveled several times to Albany to talk about transit with legislators, and he's not particularly pleased with the results.

Speaking today on a Regional Plan Association panel at the Princeton Club that also included New Jersey's transportation commissioner, Lhota said, "I'm not sure about the state house in the legislative end in Trenton, but I can tell you when I go to Albany, I mean, just trying to talk about increased investment in rail, including in the folks in the M.T.A. region, it's not that easy."

"I hope it's a generational thing," he continued. "Pretty much the phasing [in] of the people who are the younger folks who are much used to not driving, who are used to taking more rapid transit, and that's what we're actually seeing at the M.T.A. The increase in growth, if you look at the demographics of it, it's basically people who are 35 and below, who are using the system, significantly more than people older than that."